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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
UFC Fight Night 73 hits Nashville, Tenn., on Saturday night, bringing a couple of meaningful fights on the main card to close out a packed stretch of events from the UFC. Here's what's up on the main card:
Ovince St. Preux vs. Glover Teixeira (Light Heavyweight): The significant question into this fight is where Glover Teixeira's head is at. He was on one of the longest and most significant winning streaks into his title fight with Jon Jones, but was controlled handily in that fight to snap that streak. He followed that up with perhaps his worst career performance against Phil Davis, and now he finds himself potentially facing a third straight loss.
If Teixeira is at his best, his heavy hands, smothering wrestling game, and ground and pound are a great combination, and he can do a lot of damage. If those takedowns get stuffed and he's out-worked on the feet, he can be beat.
That's what St. Preux has to do, but he may need to find a way to finish Teixeira early, as well. St. Preux has been very entertaining in most of his Strikeforce and UFC bouts, and this is his chance to move to the next level. He failed to do that in hist last such opportunity, getting controlled through five rounds by Ryan Bader in a dull fight last year.
He's had two nice wins in a row to bounce back, but with how he was gassing out in the Patrick Cummins fight earlier this year, one can't help but see that as a concern against Teixeira.
Teixeira's been rocked since coming to the UFC, but his chin has held up well. The same can be said of OSP, and this seems like one of those fights that could be a thrilling display of violence, or one the peeters out and drags down the stretch. It's hard to be confident in either pick here, so with the handy coin flip let's take OSP to make another leap forward. OSP by TKO in the second round.
Michael Johnson vs. Beneil Dariush (Lightweight): 7-2 over the last three and a half years, Johnson has been mostly consistent in his performances as of late. He's shown flashes of brilliance in a couple of excellent knockout wins, but his wrestling continues to be his dominant skill, and it's allowed him to control several good fighters en route to decision wins.
Dariush had a bad trip up loss to Ramsey Nijem last April, but he's come back strong with a four fight winning streak since then. Perhaps most impressive was a short notice win over Jim Miller in his last fight, and he's shown off a very good grappling game thus far.
I'm not entirely sure where both of these guys belong in the division, so this is a statement fight for each of them. Dariush has the submission game to give Johnson troubles if he can avoid being held down. This should be a good, competitive fight, and I think both are going to find some success in a close one. Dariush by decision.
Derek Brunson vs. Sam Alvey (Middleweight): Sam Alvey's three fight winning streak has been one of the more improbable runs of late, scoring three straight KO wins despite not looking particularly great before his finishes.
What Alvey has is a good chin and some ridiculous power. It's not always pretty to watch, as the technique isn't necessarily a strong point, and he gets hit quite a bit. However, when you can floor most anyone with one or two punches, defense can feel overrated.
This is a dangerous fight for him, though, as Brunson's got KO power himself, on top of an efficient and effective wrestling game. Brunson may choose to trade with Alvey, and he's mostly got a chin to hold him up, but has been stopped by strikes twice so far. Still, that was against top five guys in Jacare Souza and Yoel Romero.
This one either ends quick, or Brunson controls the fight to avoid a firefight. Brunson by decision.
Jared Rosholt vs. Timothy Johnson (Heavyweight): Johnson made a successful UFC debut against Shamil Abdurakhimov, but while he took advantage of a gassed out first round opponent, that's not what he'll have in Rosholt.
Rosholt hasn't been the most exciting Heavyweight to watch, but he's been mostly effective save for his KO loss to Oleksiy Oliynyk. Johnson's a finisher, and may have the power to catch Rosholt, but if he allows Rosholt to get a hold of him, this could be a long night for him. Rosholt by decision.
Sara McMann vs. Amanda Nunes (Women's Bantamweight): This fight was initially set for the prelims, but got moved to the night's main card this week. This one's very clearly striker vs. grappler, but Nunes has got some moves from the bottom as well.
McMann is a phenomenal wrestler; her credentials speak for themselves. However, she's severely lacking in offensive output from top position, and it's been a problem for her in several fights.
Nunes is a finisher, and an absolute buzzsaw at times. She's got damaging kicks, exciting and brutal ground and pound, and some significant speed. The story of this fight is whether or not McMann can neutralize that. She may very well make this a dragged out, slow, methodical type bout en route to a decision, but I like Nunes' offensive game to keep her moving on up. Nunes by TKO in the second round.
Ray Borg vs. Geane Herrera (Flyweight): Borg is extremely fun to watch. He's fast, he can strike, and he's slick on the ground. Herrera comes in as an undefeated prospect with a very similar skill set. I think we're going to see a really entertaining opener on the ground with both fighters trying to out-worked the other everywhere. Give me Borg by submission in the second round to hand Herrera his first loss.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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